Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2023 RBC Canadian Open

2023 RBC Canadian Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

The sporting world is awash with stats, data and metrics these days, but all those numbers count for nothing if the players/teams involved don’t use them wisely.

For Viktor Hovland, his link-up with fellow pro and esteemed statistician Edoardo Molinari yielded an elephant in the room: the Norwegian is not, it’s fair to say, particularly good at chipping. And so he simply has to stop short-siding himself.

It was that gold nugget that prompted the lightbulb moment that would ultimately win him last week’s Memorial Tournament: he needed to stop attacking pins, particularly those posted on the edges of greens, and instead play the percentages.

Embed from Getty Images

And it worked. With typically excellent ball-striking and an improving putting stroke, Hovland snatched defeat from the jaws of victory after Denny McCarthy failed to make the par at the last hole that would have secured his maiden PGA TOUR title.

Instead, on the first playoff hole, Hovland’s conservatism and superior approach shot would land him a fourth PGA TOUR title and a first at Jack’s Place, Muirfield Village.

We are T-minus nine days or so from the U.S. Open, but the TOUR’s next engagement is a return to Canada for, yep, the Canadian Open.

Sports bettors will be rolling their eyes in frustration that we have a completely new course, Oakdale Golf & Country Club, to contend with. This layout has never hosted a professional tournament of any consequence, so we’re taking a stab in the dark as to what will be required.

At 7,264 yards for its Par 72, we know that Oakdale is short – although some of that is caveated by the fact that there’s just a trio each of Par 3s and Par 5s and some 12 Par 4s. Interestingly, four of five of those will measure shorter than 400 yards, so the strategy and bravery of the players could be tested.

For the most part, we expect the field to club down off the tee – an approach play shootout from around the 75-125 yard will go a long way to determining who wins this week.

Your guys will need to be able to putt well on Bentgrass/Poa mix greens and compete in what are expected to be cool, blustery conditions – other than that, we’ll all be learning as we go.

Rory McIlroy leads the field as he seeks a bizarre three-peat that spans two different decades and a potential three different courses – he won the Canadian Open in 2019 and 2022 (the middle years wiped out by Covid) at Hamilton and St George’s respectively.

Otherwise, Sam Burns is creeping into form, home favorite Corey Conners could be there or thereabouts and a handful of Brits – Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose – will be hoping that they can prep for the U.S. Open in the finest fashion.

But who makes our sleeper shortlist for the 2023 Canadian Open?

You must be a Premium Member to view our exclusive fantasy golf picks.

Already a member?  Sign in Here.

Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the RBC Canadian Open here.

Cover photo via Instagram